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Pregnant mother who drove minivan into ocean now accused of beating her stomach

Ocean Rescue_Edge-2.jpg

Ebony Wilkerson, left, looks at her assistant public defender Nora Hall during her first appearance before a Volusia County Court Judge, Saturday, March 8, 2014, in Daytona Beach, Fla. Wilkerson is charged with three counts of attempted murder after driving her minivan into the ocean with her three children onboard, her bond was set at $1.2 million. (AP Photo/The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Jim Tiller)

Ebony Wilkerson, 32, has been hospitalized twice she was arrested on March 4 for driving her minivan with her three children inside into the ocean, WESH in Orlando reported. She is currently being held in the psychiatric ward at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach.

On one of those occasions, Wilkerson is accused of beating her stomach. She is seven months pregnant.

She is currently being held in solitary confinement, but her public defender wants her moved to a general psychiatric ward.

A judge is expected to rule next week.

Wilkerson is being held on $1.2 million bond on three counts of attempted murder and three counts of child abuse.

Authorities say Wilkerson, who underwent a psychological evaluation, was trying to kill her children when she drove her van into the ocean at Daytona Beach on Tuesday.

"She tried to stop someone from going into the vehicle," he added. "She definitely tried to kill her children from everything we've seen."

According to the sheriff’s office, Wilkerson allegedly ignored her three frightened children’s pleas for help and insisted she was taking them to “a safer place.”

View full sizeIn this image made from video and released by Simon Besner, lifeguards rescue children from a minivan that their mother drove into the Atlantic, Tuesday, March 4, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Fla. Ebony Wilkerson, 31, a pregnant South Carolina woman who drove a minivan carrying her three young children into the ocean surf off Florida had talked about demons before leaving the house, according to her sister who worriedly called police, officials said during a news conference Wednesday. Bystanders and officers helped pull Wilkerson and her children, ages 3, 9 and 10, from their minivan. The children were turned over to welfare authorities. The Volusia County Sheriff's Office says Wilkerson was undergoing a mental evaluation. (AP Photo/Simon Besner)